A Somonka Query About Love

About this poem

Quite recently, I’ve been reminiscing about how language functions semiotically and structurally as a sign comprised of a signifier and a signified, and specifically how, as a sign, language has a genetic metaphysical component that, like a lodestone, “attracts” words to their semantic opposites, in such a manner that a word’s antonym, while opposed to its synonym ally, behaves very much like the alchemical ouroboros, seeking the very thing that it opposes, and which opposes it in turn, in order to claim and assert its own identity and significance; the synonym and antonym behaving as signifier-signified to each other. Like the pairing of signifier-signified, such is the nature of “love,” especially when it is unrequited, not openly reciprocated, and thereby resorting to court its alter ego, identified as “hatred” with the two emotions knotted in Somonka expression as “Statement” and as “Response.” In this poem the statement is posed as a query, seeking validation of the nature of love. The response to the query provides a direct but complex retort that expands the inquiry about love, and thereby invites a debate. more »